5. New Jersey Nets, cost of $2.37 million per win. Their ranking here is irrelevant, thanks to their midseason coup of trading for Deron Williams (who is well worth his $14.9m). The long-term commitment to Travis Outlaw may be regrettable (he makes $7m this and every season through 2014-15), but everything else is reasonable. The Nets are set up to build around Williams and center Brook Lopez ($2.4m as part of his continuing rookie deal).

IIRC most people thought outlaw was a "WTF" signing from the beginning.

...

biggest issue i have right now is the sense that we're behind-schedule in our rebuilding plan. mainly caused by too many picks that didn't work out- i.e., guys who were going to be future above-average starters and who should have been getting PT during these scrubby years. blame thorn for a lot of that.

the terrence williams player / franchise meltdown still pains me because -that's- the kind of talent that we should have been developing this year, looking forward to a killer roster maybe three years down the road. instead it's kind of back to the drawing board, back to drafting or picking up young players for the future. even worse, in a way, because now we have the additional challenge of needing to appease d-will at the same time.

...

oh, and this part kills me:

Quote:

4. Miami Heat, cost of $1.17 million per win. Surprised? This payroll works, even though it was pulled together on short notice last summer. LeBron James ($14.5m), Chris Bosh ($14.5m) and Dwyane Wade ($14.2m) each took less than the max to play together, and the most expensive player thereafter is Mike Miller at $5m. If Udonis Haslem had been healthy, he would have been an enormous blue-collar bargain at $3.5m. Starting center Erick Dampier is on the books for $713,666, and Mike Bibby signed for $216,110. We must wait for the rules of the next collective bargaining agreement to understand how Miami can add players in the future, but the money last summer was well spent.

for some reason i thought the superfriends were all near-max players. instead, they've saved almost $15 million between the three of them to be spent on other players.

The Nets have doubled their win total, to 24, with one game left. But this season will be remembered for the acquisition of star point guard Deron Williams and the Nets' gamble that the potential 2012 free agent will be willing to stay long term. Aside from center Brook Lopez, a reliable scorer and subpar rebounder, the team is short on the sort of quality rotation players who can entice Williams. New Jersey might have to overpay to retain free-agent power forward Kris Humphries, who averaged a double-double in a breakout season and complements Lopez's skill set. But the most valuable building blocks -- rookie power forward Derrick Favors, 19, and two first-round picks, including a high-lottery selection in June -- were sent to Utah to obtain Williams. With the uncertainty over the new collective bargaining agreement, the construction of the team's new arena in Brooklyn, the wooing of Williams and the willingness of billionaire Russian owner Mikhail Prokhorov to invest in the franchise, the situation is volatile in Jersey.

and with the inevitable comparison:

Quote:

New York Knicks- B

There are plenty of reasons to criticize the Knicks since they put Carmelo Anthony and Chauncey Billups alongside Amar'e Stoudemire. Chief among them is a generally awful defense and the fact that the pick-and-roll style preferred by Stoudemire is incompatible with the jab-step-and-jumper approach favored by the Denver imports. But in a year when even all of the elite teams (except Chicago) have endured a five- or six-game funk, the Knicks' growing pains are something their win-starved fans should gladly accept. True, by giving the Nuggets three young starters who had New York over .500 for the first time in years, Knicks management is testing the conventional wisdom that the team that lands the best player automatically "wins" the trade. But even with a depleted roster, Stoudemire and Anthony have enough firepower to beat anyone on a given night. It remains to be seen if these two formidable scorers (and coach Mike D'Antoni) can take the next necessary step and develop more of a defensive mind-set. But at the very least, the new status quo is a force to be reckoned with.

is it my imagination, or do most of the national writers seem to like the knicks more than the nets while most of the scouts and NBA insiders seem to like the nets more than the knicks?

*shrug*

MTing

04-12-2011 06:43 PM

Re: Thomsen: "Nets 5th-least efficient team in payroll, BUT..."

Pretty much agree with everything said there. I'm really looking forward to this off-season to see what role players we can grab.

gigantes

04-12-2011 07:36 PM

Re: Thomsen: "Nets 5th-least efficient team in payroll, BUT..."

MT- any opinion on how the CBA war will go?

also, how do you like our chances of re-signing d-will?

MTing

04-13-2011 04:56 PM

Re: Thomsen: "Nets 5th-least efficient team in payroll, BUT..."

Honestly, my knowledge on the CBA and contracts and all that are limited >.>;

But I do like our chances on D-Will. He seems to be warming up to the idea of Brooklyn. I don't want him to be wasting his career here though so we have to act quick in finding the best players to build around him.